Category: Uncategorised

(credit: Swatch)

We're learning more about how the legacy watch company Swatch plans to make its products smarter for the wearable age. At a news conference in Biel, Switzerland, Swatch Group AG said it plans to focus smartwatch technology on its more affordable plastic watch brand before attempting to put the technology in high-end devices.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this strategy is in response to devices like the Apple Watch which live in the under $1,000 price range (at least, the base models of the Apple Watch do). Since most other Swiss watchmakers focus on the luxury market, Swatch is the company most threatened by sub-$1,000 smart devices taking over its industry. According to IDC, smartwatches will be the most popular type of wearable device going forward, and it's expected that 34.3 million units will be shipped in 2016, which would be up from 2015's expected 21.3 million units.

However, even if Swatch plans to produce smart devices in the same price range as the Apple Watch, Swatch CEO Nick Hayek claims the company doesn't want to compete as a consumer technology company. "We are not talking about competing with Apple,” Hayek is quoted as saying in the WSJ. "They are consumer-electronics people and we don’t want to get into that sector. We are also competing with jewelry; it’s two different worlds."

(credit: Tim Ellis)

Cothority, a new software project designed to make secret backdoored software updates nearly impossible, is offering to help Apple ensure that any secret court orders to backdoor its software cannot escape public scrutiny.

Currently, when Apple or any software maker issues a software update, they sign the update with their encryption keys. But those keys can be stolen, and a government could coerce the company to sign a backdoored software update for a targeted subset of end users—and do so in secret.

Cothority decentralises the signing process, and scales to thousands of cosigners. For instance, in order to authenticate a software update, Apple might require 51 percent of 8,000 cosigners distributed around the world.

AMD has introduced XConnect, a form of driver-level support for external graphics cards, as part of its latest Radeon 16.3 driver. XConnect allows users to add and remove a Thunderbolt 3 external graphics device (eGFX) such as the Razer Core, without needing to restart the PC, as well as switch between discrete and integrated graphics on-the-fly.

The XConnect driver can also detect what applications are running on the external GPU, giving users the option to close them individually, or shut them all down at once from a pop-up menu in the system tray. Even if users forget to close down applications before removing the external GPU, AMD claims that the system will remain functional after a "surprise removal."

The first device to use XConnect will be the Razer Blade Stealth and Razer Core. AMD promises that its XConnect driver will be compatible with other systems and external GPU devices, provided they meet a few criteria. Devices must be running Windows 10 build 10586 or later and Thunderbolt firmware v.16 or higher; feature a Thunderbolt 3 port and 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 cable; and pass Thunderbolt certification. Most importantly, the systems must have BIOS ACPI extensions for Thunderbolt eGFX.

A collection of foam-tipped weapons used for LARPing.

Two rivals in the unusual business of selling foam arrows have failed to settle their dispute over patents and trademarks, and the lawsuit between them is moving forward rapidly.

Defendant Jordan Gwyther has said that the litigation could threaten the future of his favorite hobby: live action role-playing, or "LARPing." Gwyther and his fellow LARPers recreate medieval battles, wearing armor and using foam weapons to stage fights in local fields and parks.

Gwyther runs a community website for LARPers called Larping.org and has a side business selling foam-tipped arrows that are popular with LARPers. He got sued in October by a company called Global Archery, which claims that Gwyther's arrows business violates two patents it owns and also illegally uses its trademark. Last month, Gwyther, strapped for cash, went public with the dispute. He made a video asking for support on GoFundMe.

The SkyWall 100, attached to a man dressed as an anti-drone commando

8 more images in gallery

A British company has just unveiled a badass-looking bazooka that catches drones with a net and then parachutes them softly to the ground.

Drones have the wonderful propensity to turn up almost anywhere. From sport stadiums to the lawn of the White House, unmanned quadcopters have managed to sneak into locations that are usually off-limits, practically unhindered.

This is great for drone enthusiasts, obviously, but law enforcement agencies are worried these devices could be used in criminal or terrorists acts (i.e. drug-delivering or explosive-rigged drones), or cause crashes by flying too high or too close to larger aircraft.

(credit: Jorge Quinteros)

Smart security cameras are one of the easiest ways to start transforming your normal home into a connected home. Everyone knows about Alphabet's Nest cam, but there are plenty of other cameras to consider from companies including Samsung, D-Link, and Canary. However, you don't have to drop $200 on a bulbous eye-looking camera if you don't want to—there are apps for that. Numerous Android and iOS apps claim to use your old smartphone's cameras to replicate the features of these dedicated cams, letting you check in from your current smartphone whenever you want.

These security apps have nearly the same features as regular smart cameras but are free to download and require no extra hardware. Even older phones are powerful enough to be repurposed. That doesn't mean the apps are quite as good as purpose-built security cameras, though. We looked into the differences between home security cameras and their smartphone equivalents (specifically the apps Manything and Alfred) to see if one method of monitoring your home is better than the other.

Features: Extra hardware or bare-bones software?

Stand-alone security cameras and monitoring apps share a number of common features, and one of the biggest and most important is live streaming. Any smart camera will give you the ability to watch a live stream of your home over Wi-Fi or data either from a Web application, a companion mobile app, or both. They'll also have a recording feature, and some are more customizable than others. Many stand-alone cameras like the Ezviz Mini will let you schedule a time during the day to record video footage. Others will just record whenever they sense motion (and in some cases, sound) in the room or in designated activity zones.